Last Wednesday Verkhovna Rada passed the law On Payment of Wage and Other Financial Arrears whereby employers must pay off existing back wages to all employees before January 1, 2002, i.e., before the end of this year. This requirement concerns all economic entities irrespective of their form of ownership. Under the law, the arrears are to be redeemed in the form of money only, Interfax-Ukraine reports. It is allowed to use for this purpose, on a top-priority basis, any money earned by economic activity until the arrears have been fully paid. As the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies press service reported earlier, wage and salary arrears in all branches of the Ukrainian economy reach about UAH 4.5 billion. Did the lawmakers think what effect this precipitate (in the course of fewer than 6 months) payment of such an amount will have on the inflation rate in this country? Will we lose in this case more than we will gain?
